BEYOND INFINITY-THE ART OF M.C. ESCHER.

Herakleidon Museum launched its operation with the presentation of the leading Dutch artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972), who was a defining figure in the Art of 20th century. Through his representative works -that make up the museum’s collections- as well as drafts and various personal objects-tools, it is revealed the power of an artist, whose work became a model for dozens of contemporaries all over the world.

Throughout his life, woodblock prints and woodcuts remained his favorite way of expression, culminating in his final work “Snakes”, a three-color masterpiece. Although his most famous works are lithographs, many art critics consider the etching entitled “Eye” as the best example of an artist using this expressive mean.

The exhibition among other things, featured the full series of designs and final prints for the woodblock print “Depth” and the lithograph entitled “Flatworms”, as well as the actual pieces of wood and the lithographic stone used, which is worth noting that it is a slab of Bavarian limestone –one of the few that have survived- , as the artist rubbed and polished their surfaces to reuse them in his next work.

Also on display was the three-dimensional cube he used for his work entitled “Division of Cubic Space”.

M.C. Escher was born on June 1898, in Leeuwarden, a city in Northern Holland. From an early age, he showed his special talent for drawing. He was already making his first linotypes, with the help of his art-teacher, from the time of secondary education. His parents urged him to study architecture, so he enrolled at the School of Architecture and Decorative Design in Haarlem. Escher quickly realized that his true love was drawing and the graphic arts, and from that moment on, he devoted himself to them although his work always echoed a deep knowledge of architecture. After finishing his studies, he moved to Italy and settled in Rome. He toured the country from 1923-1935. During this time, he focused on creating realistic landscapes and images of cities, works noted for their striking sense of volume structure in space. From 1937, onwards Escher’s works relied on his own inexhaustible imagination. He began creating the amazing magical illustrations for which he become so famous. He added to this quest not only his wonderful knowledge of geometry and other mathematical forms, but also his humor, imagination, and passion for the regular division of the plane and boundless space. Since the 1950’s he had gained supporters among scientists and his work to this day is a symbolic bridge between science and art. Escher died in the Netherlands on March 27, 1972, aged 73.

After the end of the exhibition, selected works of M.C. Escher were presented in a special room.